…lared a base hit into right-center with one out in the ninth, scoring Damian Jackson to break the eight game losing streak Wednesday night. A few quick thoughts from the ballpark:

• Jake Peavy looked awesome. Haven’t seen him pitch like that in a long time. Ten punchouts. Very nice.
• I hear the umpires blew the call on the appeal at first when Giles tagged on a deep fly to center. Too bad, that was a real heads-up play by Giles.
• I don’t know if you could see this on television, but when David Eckstein struck out to end the seventh, he would not leave the batters box. Evidently he thought he’d fouled the ball off. All four umpires got together and conferred, but nothing changed. Eventually someone handed Eckstein his glove and cap, but the guy basically stood at the plate with a bat in his hands during the entire seventh inning stretch. Weird.
• Was anyone else stunned that Jason Marquis was allowed to throw 132 pitches? I’m not a big pitch-count guy, but it seems to me the Cards should’ve had somebody up in the bullpen at least. When Marquis intentionally walked Joe Randa to get to Fick in the decisive showdown, I kept looking down to the bullpen to see if Ray King or Randy Flores was getting ready, but all was silent. Jason Isringhausen had been throwing during the top of the ninth but when the Cards failed to take the lead, he returned to his seat. Anyway, it all seemed more like something out of Dusty Baker’s book than Tony LaRussa’s.

It feels good to win again, no?